<\/p>\n
The Arty Awards, back last year a multi-year hiatus, was hosted by On Stage Vacaville for the first time in its 40-year history.<\/p>\n
Later this month, local theater-goers are in for another night of performances and awards at the annual Arty Awards Gala.<\/p>\n
Lisa Hilas, president of On Stage Vacaville, was \u201ca nervous wreck\u201d ahead of last year\u2019s Arty Awards, but is confident this time around. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019ve got it down now and we really know what to expect,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Over the past year, theater and musical theater performances across Solano and Napa counties have been reviewed and accordingly nominated for a variety of awards including best set design, best choreography and best lead actor.<\/p>\n
All awards categories are broken up by the age group of the performers, with several shows nominated in multiple categories, such as Justin-Siena High School\u2019s production of The Drowsy Chaperone, which received 11 nominations.<\/p>\n
At the Arty Award Gala on Oct. 19, nominated productions will perform scenes and musical numbers between winner announcements.<\/p>\n
Although the specific productions to perform at the gala are a secret even to Hilas, American Canyon High School\u2019s production of \u201cHadestown Teen Edition\u201d which was also nominated for multiple awards, will perform in some form.<\/p>\n
The night will start off with an elaborate opening act directed by longtime Arty Award organizer Robert Ponce.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust knowing that we\u2019ve got these partners that know what they are doing has been a real help,\u201d says Hilas. Ponce is not the only \u201cOG\u201d Arty organizer to help out after the hiatus, she says. Their script writer and MC are returning for at least their second year.<\/p>\n
Despite having behind the scenes help, it\u2019s no small feat to put on the Artys, from finding judges to getting arts organizations to participate to coordinating the gala. Before taking it on again, Hilas first wanted to ensure there was community interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of my main concerns \u2014 \u2018does the community want this?\u2019 With a resounding \u2018yes\u2019, we heard from them and we\u2019re thrilled to keep doing it,\u201d says Hilas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just so uplifting. There\u2019s so much joy in the room,\u201d she says of the annual gala. Hilas is excited to present the gala once again and honor shows from across Solano and Napa counties. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of great talent here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers aren\u2019t changing anything major about the gala this year, sticking to the old phrase: If it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it. \u201cI just feel like we have a pretty magic formula and so we\u2019re just going to keep doing what we\u2019re doing,\u201d says Hilas.<\/p>\n
One thing that Hilas hopes does change in future years however, is the number of participating judges. \u201cWe are in desperate need for more judges,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Judges help decide the winners of each nomination category by going to local theater shows throughout the year. Judges and their plus one can go to the theater for free by filling out information on the On Stage Vacaville website.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really great opportunity to enjoy the arts and participate in shining the local talent,\u201d says Hilas.<\/p>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.timesheraldonline.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Arty Awards, back last year a multi-year hiatus, was hosted by On Stage Vacaville for the first time in its 40-year history. Later this month, local theater-goers are in for another night of performances and awards at the annual Arty Awards Gala. Lisa Hilas, president of On Stage Vacaville, was \u201ca nervous wreck\u201d ahead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2075790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[22220,22691,21741,21818,373537,343508,343509,332338,24047,22482,332339,332340],"class_list":["post-2075789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-arts","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-lifestyle","tag-napa-county","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-solano-county","tag-theater","tag-things-to-do","tag-vacaville","tag-vallejo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/The-Arty-Awards-are-here-to-stay-\u2013-Times-Herald.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2075789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2075791,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075789\/revisions\/2075791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2075790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2075789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2075789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2075789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}